Hunte: No more excuses for failure

It did not take long for Julian Hunte to identify his first priority on his return to West Indies cricket in July as president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

From his office in New York, where he was St Lucia's Ambassador to the United Nations for eight years, the former vice-president followed the continuing chaos with alarm. Most of all, he was aghast at the antagonism between the WICB and the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA). He was baffled by the differences that led to actual and threatened strike action by the players, by the need to seek arbitration to settle disagreements and by the antagonistic language used by both sides in their dealings with each other.

"I found it difficult to understand why the players were in the North Pole and the board in the South," he said. "It just didn't make sense."

So, as one of his first aims in office, he set about pouring oil on those troubled waters. "One of the objectives has been to get across, once and for all, that the board and the players constitute a partnership," he stated, speaking during his stay in Johannesburg for the ICC World Twenty20. "This was my first responsibility."

As such, he appointed the WIPA head, Dinanath Ramnarine, as a non-executive member of the board so that, he stated at the time, the WIPA can now be "part of the solution instead of continuing to be perceived as part of the problem".

Ramnarine, the former Trinidad and Tobago and West Indies legspinner, took over the WIPA in 2002, since when, in the words of the Jamaica Gleaner has "conducted a long and intensive guerilla campaign against the WICB". Throughout, he has outmaneuvered an ineffectual board, winning all five disputes that have gone to arbitration and outlasting three board presidents and two chief executives.

Hunte's immediate predecessor, Ken Gordon, accused him of "publicly denigrating the board, its officers and executives at every meeting" and charged that he was "incapable of rising to the level of maturity now required if the relationship between the WIPA and the WICB is to contribute to the development of West Indies cricket".

Hunte took a different view, although his decision to position Ramnarine on the board was not original. He was vice-president when the WICB gave an annual grant of US$50,000 to reactivate a dormant WIPA a dozen years ago and when WIPA representatives (then David Holford and Roland Holder) sat in on board meetings. Cricket South Africa has included a players' representative on its board for the past two years.

Pointing out that he has "a little experience in the trade union movement" in his native St Lucia (where he has also been deeply involved in politics in addition to running his own, successful insurance business), the new president saw Ramnarine's appointment as an opportunity to begin bridging the divide between the WIPA and the WICB.

"I spoke extensively with Ramnarine before making the appointment and I believe he appreciates where I'm coming from," he said. As far as Hunte is concerned, the relationship between the two should concern not only the question of fees and contracts but also "providing assistance as it relates to the performance of the players".

The ultimate aim is to reverse the decline that has seen West Indies plummet from top to bottom in the international standings within a decade. Typical of a politician who knows what it is to canvass for electoral votes, albeit not always successfully, Hunte has gone beyond Ramnarine's formal appointment to bonding with the players themselves.

While the team was in Johannesburg for the ICC World Twenty20, Hunte took them all to dinner, entertained several in his hotel room ("even though it's not a suite"), went into the dressing room before matches and met separately with captain Ramnaresh Sarwan and vice-captain Chris Gayle, both of whom have had recent issues with the WICB. He also heard from manager Mike Findlay whose report on the England tour in the summer opened his eyes to much of the players' ill feeling towards the board.

"What I've been trying to do is to get to know these guys, to hear whatever complaints they might have, whatever suggestions they want to make," he said. "I felt on this visit what I had to do was to establish a relationship that I can build on. I got the impression that sometimes those guys felt they were out there on their own, that they were playing but nobody cared," he observed. "It is not just the money, as much as that is important to them. But that is not all. You want to instill in them the pride of playing for West Indies and how important it is for them to win."

Hunte detected "a little more remorse" this time at the manner of their losses to South Africa and Bangladesh that led to their first round elimination from the ICC Twenty20 World Cup.

The next engagements on the ICC programme are tough - an ODI series in Zimbabwe and then on to South Africa between December and February for three Tests, one Twenty20 and five ODIs. Home series against Sri Lanka and world champions Australia follow almost immediately.

Hunte said a camp of meaningful length is planned at the new performance centre in Barbados in November to properly prepare the players for those assignments. He explained that a similar, shorter exercise prior to the ICC World Twenty20 was not feasible in the Caribbean but was held instead in South Africa where the team had arrived before any other.

"When I saw their performances in the two warm-up matches, especially when they beat New Zealand, the fielding, [Daren] Powell's tremendous spell (4-3-1-4), the sensible batting, I really felt they could win the tournament," he said. "But then we had all those wides and dropped catches in the opening match against South Africa. It showed up the inconsistency."

Hunte said he told the players here that they have a responsibility to "do the things that are necessary" to maintain their places and be part of a winning team. "As long as I am there, the board is going to do everything possible to ensure that they have the tools to do the job so there can't be any more excuses (for failure)."

But he is aware that, for all the physical and technical work they might put in, the players' peace of mind is as essential to their performance. It is not surprising that the prolonged descent towards mediocrity on the field is directly related to the bitter divide between the WICB and the WIPA off it.

The sooner that is bridged, the better-and, as far as Hunte is concerned, by whatever means.